If it’s a new home, the builder may be responsible Barry Stone
Inman News™ DEAR BARRY: Last year, we purchased a newly built home. Before closing we hired a home inspector, and no defects were reported. But now we’ve learned that there were code violations. How could the house be sold if it didn’t meet code, [...]

Daughter worries bank will call loan due before she can find a job Benny Kass
Inman News™ DEAR BENNY: My mother died in February of this year. About a month before her death she executed a beneficiary deed leaving the home to me, her daughter. I was also the sole beneficiary of her will. She had [...]

What homeowners can do to protect against scams Tom Kelly
Inman News™ Homes are taking longer to sell and foreclosures are taking longer to process. Unfortunately, crooks are taking advantage of both of those extended time frames. Scammers are involved in foreclosure rescue schemes, loan modification stings and in just about every conceivable angle of “equity [...]

Some ‘green’ ways to remove excess sealer Bill and Kevin Burnett
Inman News™ Recently, we published a response to a reader who had a problem with a sticky deck. It seems her handyman didn’t read the instructions on the sealer can and got carried away. In this case, more was not better. The sealer pooled and [...]

REThink Real Estate Tara-Nicholle Nelson
Inman News™ Q: Recently, I read an article of yours in which you told a seller to have her home inspected before putting it on the market. I will be putting my mom’s house on the market, and in watching many of the real estate TV shows, I had never heard [...]

Rent it Right Janet Portman
Inman News™ Q: After weeks of trying to get our landlord to make a repair to the roof, we decided to withhold rent. We followed our state’s rules, and the landlord got the idea — he repaired the roof. But then he served us with a rent increase. Isn’t this illegal? [...]

Payouts tied to market index instead of individual properties Steve Bergsman
Inman News™ Declining home prices and the foreclosure backlog are not the only obstacles to a housing recovery. There is also the psychological factor: Potential homeowners have lost confidence in the asset class. It’s easy to understand why. After decades of relatively steady, mostly upward [...]

Nonrenewal must be based on legitimate business reasons Robert Griswold
Inman News™ Q: We have an unmarried couple renting a one-bedroom apartment for the past 4 1/2 years. We have always had trouble collecting rent in a timely fashion, and every time we have been there for a repair we found the apartment was dirty and [...]